Battle against Bibi's natural gas plan fails to garner public support
Unlike their strong interest in issues such as housing prices or banking reform, Israelis are not engaged with the battle against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's natural gas plan.
Despite numerous demonstrations against the Israeli government's plans for an offshore natural gas field, there is little chance opposition will grow strong enough to derail its approval.
A Nov. 7 demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's outline for natural gas resources and benefits distribution drew a few thousand people, but not as many as organizers had expected. And even though the protest at Habima Tel Aviv Square was held in the pouring rain on a Saturday night, the rain can't be blamed, since tens of thousands of people attended soccer games that night despite the weather.
The Israeli public just doesn’t connect with claims that the government is engaging in “exploitation” and “theft against the public” in its plans to develop natural gas reservoirs discovered off the coast. The protesters were mostly members of social justice organizations, professional activists and a crowd of politically active young people. It wouldn’t be a wild guess to say that the vast majority of those who showed up were associated with the political left, — that is, the Labor and Meretz Parties — and further left.
Protesters see the proposal as governmental injustice opposed to the public interest. But — without discounting the act of thousands who came out to protest on an especially rainy day in Tel Aviv and cities like Beersheba and Jerusalem — it’s hard to believe that this issue will revive the Israeli social protest and bring tens of thousands of people back to the streets. For Netanyahu, who is now jogging toward the finish line of authorizing the gas plan — after clearing the last hurdle and taking upon himself the authorities of the Ministry of the Economy from Minister Aryeh Deri — there is no reason to worry about significant public resistance.
